Trevor the dog might get a little miffed that I scooped him on this one, but I was only able to do get ahead of him because of my opposable thumbs, I’m a bit more adept at the computer than he is I’m sure.

While there are dog people and cat people and I respect them both, however, I’ve always thought dogs were smarter. There, I said it. I love dogs because of how they enhance our lives. I used to tell my cat lovin’ friend, “Look at all the things dogs can do, they search and rescue, they help people see and hear. What do cats do?

“Cats are smart enough not to get put to work.” My friend would retort.

My answer to that was to quote Muriel Barbery who wrote, “The Elegance of the Hedgehog.” She wrote, “… Cats are fat windbags who eat designer kibble and have no interesting interaction with human beings. The only purpose of cats is that they constitute mobile decorative objects…” No, I don’t mean that, because deep down I’m a cat lover, it’s just that I’m highly allergic and that Muriel Barbery quote is always good for a chuckle.

According to a study by Oxford University, “Over millions of years dogs have developed bigger brains than cats because highly social species of mammals need more brain power than solitary animals.” Other animals that have developed larger brains are monkeys, followed by horses, dolphins, camels and dogs. The reasoning being is that the more social an animal is, the larger their brain is, relative to body size of course. A larger brain capacity is needed because social animals need to think more.

So there you have it, the truth about cats and dogs. I would suppose that’s why Mama got Trevor to write the column and Mr.Walter Croncat is just window decoration.